Tag Archives: tofu

Day One of Four

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There are several reasons why I didn’t post yesterday, some good and some bad.

  1. We determined that I am injured badly enough from my fall that I should continue to take a few days away from the gym.  Aka, my ticket out of Grumpsville hasn’t arrived yet.
  2. The popcorn I had for lunch was not exciting, and I later found out that it wasn’t vegan either!  Sidenote – why does the ingredients list need to be split?  I didn’t realize “natural flavors” meant “milk proteins” until after I’d (finished) looked at the other side of the bag.
  3. My dinner was exciting, and vegan, but since it was part of a review I agreed to do for a new recipes app I couldn’t share the recipes with you guys.  Telling you in retrospect that I had home-made Asian-style slaw and sesame green beans with spring rolls is mean, but showing you the tasty pictures too would have been just cruel.

I technically have a four-day weekend (my school canceled classes on Monday and Tuesday) but since I have two tests and two quizzes next week, today was my last day to really relax.  I made the most of it.

We slept in and hung out all morning, then picked up a quick meal from the Co-op hot bar.

I got vegan mac and cheese, cilantro baked tofu, falafel, and a few pieces of Cajun sweet potato.

Everything was good, and I liked the pasta for what it was, but Adam and I both agreed that “mac and cheese” was a pretty generous label.

I also randomly included an orange cream soda with lunch.

My afternoon snacks included a serving of Newman’s Own Pretzel Rods.

Dipped in Cherry Coke Zero, of course.

And a Liz Lovely Lemon Coconut Cookie.

Adam (who has a normal weekend) was at the lab until late so we decided to cash in a Groupon and try out a new place for dinner.  Acropolis, a Greek place a few blocks from our apartment, had a 50% off Groupon going that I picked up a few months ago.  Tonight was the night.

Tonight was also the night for silly faces.

The lighting was terrible, assume that all the food was 20% better than it looks.  Actually, the lighting was great when we walked in but the minute we sat down they put on the awful “mood” lighting.  I hate dim restaurants.  Even before I had a food blog, who wants to eat in the dark?!

We ended up ordering a bunch of appetizers and sharing.

The only vegan things on the menu all happened to be the only things on the menu we were interested in, so I’m glad we picked this month to try it out.

I ate my fair share of grape leaves,

baba ganoush,

and lavash and pita bread.

The pita was the best I’ve ever had!  So nice to go on a date with the husband.

Now I’m supposed to be in bed, but the dog in the apartment below us is going crazy.  Instead I’m sipping on this Bolthouse Farms Vanilla Chia drink, and trying to think calm thoughts.

Good night (hopefully!).

NYC – Day 1

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Hello from Nyc! Our hotel is lacking internet so this day late post come from the McDonalds across the street.

I’m just using wifi though, we have real brunch plans at eleven.  For now I’m sipping a diet coke and this Tropical Revolution Foods Mash-Up.

Yesterday morning started with a pre-6am shower before we hit the road for our 8hour drive.

I started my car breakfast with an Empire apple, to put me in an empire state of mind.

This was the most sour red apple I’ve ever tasted! It was quite crunchy and good though.

Plus a blend coffee; ie 2/3 (regular) cinnamon hazelnut coffee, 1/3 (sweetened) English toffee cappuccino.

Coffee really fills me up so I ended up having just the apple for breakfast, but I did steal a bite of the husband’s peanut butter Snickers.

Holy yum! Such a good idea, candy manufacturers! Plus, each square has 125calories, pretty good for a dessert with protein.

We had a lot of hours to fill in the car, I poured through magazines and even painted my nails –

pretty good for 70mph! I guess keeping myself pretty is why I’m so spoiled; the husband stayed on driving duty the whole way!

Our hotel is right on 7th Avenue, which is fabulous for the price.  I’m used to sleeping in Brooklyn so it’s fun to dream in a new area.

You better believe our first stop was Pinkberry!

A small original tart with strawberry, mango, yogurt chips, and praline cream.

There were two spoons, but basically for show because I pretty much dominated it.

And our next stop was green juice.

Carrot, apple, lemon, cucumber, and spinach gets a huge smile from me.

Then we spent a couple of hours walking around our old neighborhood in Park Slope. It was fabulous. Sidenote: we are deliriously trying to pretend we are still local, so the underabundance of city shots is not due to a lack of fabulousness.

Among our old haunts was a quick trip to Watana, where we split Drunken Noodles with steamed tofu.

My plate, x2.

This was so good it hurt! Broad rice noodles are hands down my favorite food.

During the 20(short) block walk back to the subway we also shared a Curiosity Cola.

Quite good, like Coke but without the syrupy sweetness.

We are here for the weekend with friends from high school (Ian lives in MA – and his girlfriend lives here – and Gory lives in PA) so our next stop was meeting them at their train. From there we headed to Bon Chon for dinner.

Ian called it “the new hotness” but beyond that we didn’t know what to expect. It ended up being Asian meets fried chicken. With complimentary rice wine to start.

I ate a super spicy chicken wonton,

and for dinner I ordered the Soy Duk Bo Ki, a sweet rice cake dish prepared with fish cakes, scallions, onions and soy garlic sauce.

The fish and rice cakes were super chewy, it was a totally unique texture. Adam thought it was gross, but I happily devoured 3/4 of the plate.

Even better than good food was the chance to catch up with old friends 🙂  I wasn’t drinking, so I was in bed watching tv by 2, but the boys were out past 4!

I’m not sure what the plan for today is, but my ideal itinerary includes cupcakes!

STT; Tuesday Night – Wednesday Afternoon

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One by one, all of our fancy anniversary plans fell through. In the end, we got takeout and played board games with my parents. It was perfect.

Tofu pad thai, cashew chicken, and crab Rangoon.

I did some snacking earlier in the afternoon as well; half a sandwich for lunch was not cutting it.

Apple slices, beer bread with cheese,

and a brownie.

And during board games I showed the husband how much I love him by letting him share my favorite thing on earth –

This candy is basically just a cake of sugar soaked in peppermint oil, it’s fantastic. Minty and crunchy, it reminds you of getting your teeth brushed at the dentist in the best possible way.

Breakfast this morning was 0% Fage with half a sliced banana and a piece of coffee cake.

I also took some gingerbread coffee with skim milk to go while running errands with my dad.

For lunch I toasted a huge chunk of beer bread and topped it with hot pepper raspberry jam and melted swiss.

Yum!

The rest of the day brings a swim (we’ve gotten in a small workout every single vacation day, I’ll be darned if I miss today!), a movie, and dinner.  I can’t believe that tomorrow is our last day here!

What do you do to celebrate anniversaries?

Five Little Words

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Huge Anatomy test tomorrow, hurry!

Five(ish) words per line, go!

Southwest chicken flatbread sandwich, mmmn.

Corn, black beans, melty cheddar.

Baked goods food lab today.

1/3 eaten, cookies = dough balls!

Wegman’s to study, and dinner.

Lots of veggies, a little fun.

1chip per 4slides = study bribe.

Class, study, class, study, bedtime.

10 Days

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 Our sleep schedule has been out of control lately, and that’s unhealthy for body, mind, and spirit.  In order to get back on track Adam and I made a pact to go to bed as early as possible (whether that’s 8pm some days or 11pm other days) for the next 10 days.  I’m excited to do something healthy for myself, but that does mean this has to be a quick post; go, go, go!

I stayed up so late with the boys last night (3am?!!) that I actually got hungry again!  I ended up pulling out the yogurt that was planned for my car snack as a late-night munch.  Liberte Strawberry.

This stuff is just so decadent and amazing.  The flavor and texture were spot on with 2% Fage with Strawberry; if you want the Greek yogurt experience this is the closest non-Greek gets.  Sadly this is not low-fat, and the 9grams of saturated fat (and 24grams of sugar) mean I can’t eat it as much as I’d like.

This morning felt like it came pretty early 😉  We headed out to one last breakfast with the family before we hit the road.  They took us to the restaurant inside Buehlers.  I was starving (probably actually tired) so I decided to go with the breakfast burrito.

With sauce on the side and fruit subbed for hash browns.

We were pretty impressed.

Even more impressive was the actual grocery store, we did a quick loop for road snacks and ended up finding all sorts of goodies we can’t get in Buffalo.  We ended up piecing together a very tasty lunch, all pieces split 50:50.  1st, Odwalla Pumpkin Protein.

Yuuuuum!  I was obsessed with this drink in Brooklyn, it’s perfectly sweet and creamy.

2nd, Stoneyfield Mango and Honey Fat Free yogurt.

This was actually not that good, sadly, it had almost no flavor and was oddly viscous.

And for dessert, Godiva Dark Chocolate with Extra Dark Ganache.

Pretty gourmet for a road trip if you ask me.

We got back into Buffalo around 6 and I’ve been running around ever since; lots of unpacking and getting of groceries.  While I was out I picked up dinner from the Co-op.

Thai cucumber salad and sweet ginger tofu.

Tasty, tasty.

And 1, 2, 3, Bedtime!

What time do you usually get in bed?

This Post Was Technically Born in ’09

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Yikes, I can’t believe this morning started 18hours ago!  Registration went ok, I got into all fo the classes that I had to have.  Right now I’m registered for 19 credits (2 classes more than the normal load), but I’ll probably drop a class once I get things figured out.

It was supposed to snow today (still hasn’t yet, knock on wood!) and I was wearing my Mary Poppins outfit so I had the husband drive me to school this morning.

That kind of cute is so worth it!

I got breakfast from the food court while I studied for my test, a toasted everything bagel with honey walnut cream cheese.

Love that savory/sweet combo!

The test went well, not a 100% but I’ll be surprised if I don’t have an A.  Afterwards I had to meet up with my group to work on the poster for our presentation.  When Orgo rolled around at 1:00 we still weren’t done, ugh.  I snacked on this amazing combo from home while we worked.

1 serving of dried hibiscus and 2 servings of Sahale Snacks Sing Buri Cashews.

Not gonna lie, my afternoon snack was much much less impressive…

The dip was disgusting and got tossed, but I demolished the bag of chips 😉  This was supposed to be my bribe to study in the evening, but then a whole UPS debacle happened and this ended up being just a really unhealthy snack!

Dinner was one of those fabulous ‘I told you blog reading isn’t a waste of time, husband’ gems.

I’ve been reading Kath’s blog since 2008(!!) and I actually bookmarked this recipe way back in February of 2009!  Tofu Quiche.  You won’t believe it but my version was actually less cheesy than the original –

For the most part I followed Kath’s lead, but we did make a few minor changes,

  • increased to a pint of mushrooms
  • increased to 4 (packed) cups of baby spinach
  • cut back to 2cups of (2% Sharp Cheddar) cheese
  • subbed in 1/8 tsp each nutmeg and garlic powder for oregano
  • pulsed several times to chop up the veggies rather than leaving them whole
  • skipped the crust entirely

Our version was delicious!

We hurried and cut before it set, but the flavors were spot on.

The extra cheese wasn’t missed and I actually wished we had added more veggies.  Adam was totally in love with this too.

After a very long, very fruitless drive to UPS we came home and caught up on tv.  …..after a trip the Wegman’s candy bulk bins.

Jumbo malted milk balls?  Yes please!

Do you try out recipes from food blogs?  Any major successes?  (Or failures!?)

Pour Some Sugar On Me

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I’ve had that ubiquitous Def Leppard track stuck in my head all weekend.  Around midnight on Saturday I even requested it be added to the party playlist!  And “Pour Some Sugar on Me” is a fitting anthem for this evening as I’m currently buzzing from a major sugar high.

Let’s cover dinner first shall we?

The tofu I was pressing earlier was cooked up this evening into my fabulous Coco Loco Tofu.  If you haven’t tried this recipe yet I highly recommend it; it’s the dish that got the husband hooked on tofu!

We used the remaining coconut marinade to cook down a big batch of kale.

The creamy (coconut), tangy (rice vinegar) sauce was the perfect complement to the kale.  Sometimes I hate how much greens cook down though; I swear that is a big serving of veggies!

I was ravenous while we were cooking dinner so I made myself a tiny bowl of 0% Plain Oikos with homemade chocolate pb, Crofter’s strawberry spread, and a pinch of shredded coconut.

Tasty, but ruined my appetite for the main event; I ended up only eating 2/3 of my tofu and sharing the rest.

I worked up an appetite for dessert stirring, stirring, stirring in the kitchen.  40minutes later I was rewarded with caramel apples!

I pulled a recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray for Honey-Vanilla Caramel Apples.  I decided to make a half batch of apples (Adam won’t eat any) and save the rest of the caramel for other means. 

Granny Smith, Paula Red, Crispin.

I haven’t tasted an actual apple yet because I made myself too sick on caramel, but I can already tell you that this recipe is a keeper!  The honey vanilla caramel is divine and it was easy as pie to make.  There is a fabulous deep roasted flavor that makes it addictive; there was a lot of this –


Healthy dinner, check; most of my school work up to date, check; satisfied sweet tooth, check plus!

Caramel, candied, or naked, how do you prefer your apples?

Tough Transitions

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I did not get enough done today (don’t I say that every day?!?!) so I’ll keep this post simple.  I did accomplish a walk to the farmer’s market/co-op for some local goodies.

And a trip to Wegman’s to complete the groceries.  We had a hot bar coupon so the husband and I got lunch.

Can you guess which side of that container is mine?

I filled up on an assortment of veggies,

with sesame tofu and chicken.

Not even an hour after eating I felt empty.  The feeling was so bad I ended up walking to get a (ginormous) slice of bbq chicken pizza.

Post-pizza I had a Double Fudge Brownie mini ice-cream.

And then I was FULL.  I ate my 2nd lunch around 3:00 but I ended up calling it dinner because I haven’t gotten hungry again!

I am finding the transition back to school to be much harder than I expected; and I didn’t think it would be easy!  I think part of the issue is that I didn’t just quit my job and go to school, but rather worker bee –> unemployed –> student.  Do you have any advice to help me become a student again????